During a keynote at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Sony confirmed its next-generation gaming device, formally named the PlayStation Vita, will cost $250 when it arrives in the U.S. later this year.

Late last year, Sony gaming boss Kazuo Hirai hinted that the next generation of the company's PlayStation portable handheld gaming device would learn from Apple's success with touch-based controls and casual gaming. In January, Sony unveiled the device, then codenamed the Next Generation Portable, which features a 5-inch OLED touchscreen and front and rear touch pads.

The Tokyo, Japan-based electronics giant announced Monday that the NGP will be officially named the PlayStation Vita, as noted by MacNN. The PS Vita will sport a quad-core processor and quad-core graphics, as well as dual analog sticks and front and rear cameras.

Sony also revealed an aggressive price of $250 for the Wi-Fi only version. AT&T will partner with Sony to launch the 3G PlayStation Vita in the U.S. for $300, with access to over 20,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots. The device is scheduled for release in time for this year's holiday season.

However, several analysts criticized the device as being too costly. "That's fine for core gamers who want to play games all the time, but it's too expensive for the mass market," said Dan Ernst, a Hudson Square research analyst.

By comparison, Apple's entry-level iPod touch costs $229. Apple, however, will have a chance to respond, as the company is expected to release an updated version of the iPod touch later this year.

Sony's other major mobile gaming rival, Nintendo, also offers its Nintendo 3DS gaming system for $250. But, after the initial wave of early adopters this spring, 3DS sales dropped off to "lackluster at best," The Wall Street Journal reports. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata warned in April that sales of the device had weakened, with just 194,000 systems being sold in the U.S. that month, compared to 400,000 units in the first week of availability in March.

Sony has lost considerable share to Apple in the mobile gaming market. In 2009, Apple achieved a 19 percent share of U.S. mobile gaming market revenue, compared to 11 percent from Sony, according to Flurry Analytics. In 2010, iOS and Android took 34 percent of revenue, while the PlayStation portable shrunk to 9 percent.

Unfortunately the Sony brand is just toxic right now, especially amongst the hardcore geeks gang, which would normally form a large percentage of the early adopters for this device.

Its a device arriving a year too late, at a price too high, and in a really really bad environment for Sony.

That being said, I think it could still succeed, because as far as I can tell, the 3DS is not setting the world on fire, and gamers might want a more traditional handheld console. However, its highly unlikely that any of its sales are going to be at the expense of the iPod touch.

Clearly, at this point, devices are merging. If Sony really wants to compete with Apple, they need to build a media player/gamer/phone/web/etc. The days of devices that do one thing are going away as we all expect tech to be more and be able to do more.

That isn't entirely true. Have you seen the Sony a55 camera? It's more or less a DSLR, but with a fixed mirror and an electronic viewfinder. That thing is really impressive... and their next model, the a77 that's coming next month, could be downright amazing.

The problem Sony is facing is that they're trying to do too much, and they're accepting too little from themselves. Their high end cameras are really impressive right now, but so much of their other stuff is a mess. The brand needs a wake-up call, but their problems are fixable.

Still... this gaming system looks like a perfect example of what Sony is doing wrong.

Unfortunately the Sony brand is just toxic right now, especially amongst the hardcore geeks gang, which would normally form a large percentage of the early adopters for this device.

Its a device arriving a year too late, at a price too high, and in a really really bad environment for Sony.

That being said, I think it could still succeed, because as far as I can tell, the 3DS is not setting the world on fire, and gamers might want a more traditional handheld console. However, its highly unlikely that any of its sales are going to be at the expense of the iPod touch.

Toxic, doubtful. The recent hits on an FBI site, GMail and Nintendo, show that no one's immune to hackers.

Even with PSN down a month, Sony's looking at record sales of the PS3, and while in the US the PSP isn't a huge success, it is successful globally. The NGP has a lot of support and interest from the hardcore geeks, especially with the Transfarrance system.

The 3DS is suffering the same problem the PSP Go did; too much money for a minor upgrade. Plus, there's starting to be a backlash against Nintendo releasing a new DS every other year. Parents aren't appreciating having to fork out a couple hundred for a minor upgrade for their crotch spawn.

With that said, I think Sony's probably going to see a bigger success will be with the "Playstation Phone". Because, like it's been said, people are moving more to "all-in-one" devices like media players/tablets.

The big problem is that it only makes sense for people who dont mind carrying an additional, fairly bulky device. (Which used to be the only option for mobile gaming, but it isnt anymore.) A device youve left behind at home isnt doing much for you.

Or, if youre gaming at home, you dont need a handheld. You can game on a real console, Mac/PC, or iPad.

It has its place and I wish it well, but I dont see a dedicated game device having that big an audience. Not these days.

The main take away for Sony should be the impending doom apple is about to throw over them. I'm kind of doubting Airplay Mirroring will be entirely up to snuff, but given how much apple has concentrated on graphical improvement in the A5 chip- I think once apple TV and subsequent generations of Ipads come out air- wirelessly airplaying video games to your big screen for the cost of an iPhone you'd already have, a TV you'd probably already have, and a $99 AppleTV it's a no brainer. The content is starting to mature and will no doubt get there.

Sony sucks ass. They fumbled super hard, and a lot of people are going to remember it. Their welcome back package included a choice of two games out of five that suck or are 3+ years old and a pixel art ( i shit you not) background. In addition, you get 30 free days of shitware on their PS+ offering.

The new PSP is DOA. Sony has never been able to create a successful portable and there's no reason to think they will now. On top of the price, what doesn't get talked about alot is that this thing is gonna have terrible battery life (sub 4 hours). Games and applications for it will be limited and have a very slow adoption. There's also no reason and no indication right now to believe it will ship when Sony says it will.

In the end all the PSP was really used for was emulation gaming among hardcore gamers, and people downloading pirated ROMS doesn't equate to a whole lot of revenue for developers.

So out of the gate they're beaten on price, features, battery life and software. I do think Sony's reputation will be mostly mended by the time it ships however, I wouldn't hold that against them (unless they get hacked again).

The one interesting thing about this new PSP is the quad core cpu and quad core gpu. Same GPU as the ipad2 but a quad core instead of the ipad2's dual core. There's no doubt it has horsepower. But that sort of thing doesn't translate to sales or popularity, I consider it a preview of what iOS devices may have in the next 1-2 years if they figure out how to maintain battery life, and that I think is a big if. The SGX543 GPU scales up to 16 cores, but I think there's a decent chance Apple will skip all that and wait for the next dual core GPU (something that is both more powerful and has more efficient battery draw) than just throw 4+ cores at their hardware like Sony has done.

If Sony can leverage lots of 3rd party Support and the platform is easy to hack (piracy always helps a platform to get going, just look at the Wii and DS and Original Playstation) then they should do ok.